Trump, Obama locked in repeal wars

WASHINGTON: A newly sworn in President Donald Trump will

repeal

a number his predecessor's executive actions in his first day at the

White House

. The Republican-controlled Congress, which convenes on Tuesday, will initiate moves to scrap the signature

Obamacare

. The two actions will add up to a massive setback to the first black US president's legacy .

Such is vindictive force of the Trump and GOP victory that Obama is rushing to Capitol Hill later this week to plead with lawmakers to save the healthcare law that saw millions of Americans mandatorily having to buy insurance for the first time.

Democrats argued the law helped the poor, Republicans contested it, and amid the political dogfight, ordinary Americans have no idea where the health of US is headed, let alone their own well-being.

On Sunday, Sean Spicer, Trump's incoming White House press secretary, told ABC that the new president will immediately “repeal a lot of the regulations and actions that have been taken by this administration over the last eight years that have hampered both economic growth and job creation.“ He did not specify what Trump will strike out but there have been several executive actions by Obama, in areas ranging from climate change to immigration to foreign policy, that Trump trashed during his campaign.

But the centerpiece of the upcoming battle will be Obamacare, the signature health care legislation that was expected to seal the first African-American President's place in history .

Inasmuch as it represented the most significant overhauling of the US healthcare system in half a century, it also deeply divided the country, pitting states against states and people against people, depending on one's health, outlook, and station in life. Trump called it a disaster, but has not offered any alternate plan.

As things stand, even through Republicans control the White House and both wings of the legislature, they simple can't repeal Obamacare; they will need the support of a handful of Democrats. If President Obama manages to keep his flock together, Republicans are expected to defund the law, eliminating subsidies that help people pay their premiums and eliminating tax penalties for those who don't buy insurance, essentially destroying the central element of the law.

There's just one problem: Republicans don't have any clarity or concrete plan on what they will replace Obamacare with, and worse, millions of their own flock have benefitted from the new health law. Some liberals are actually chortling about how poor coal-miners who voted for Trump are actually begging that Obamacare be retained.

While some of those stories may be hyperbolic -or pure schadenfreude -what's indisputable is that enrollment for Obamacare hit record levels for 2017 even as it is about to be scrapped.

While the Obamacare dogfight will not have much of an effect beyond domestic fallout, threats to repeal the outgoing president's executive actions can affect many foreign countries and the world at large -in areas ranging from climate change to terrorism.

In fact, President Obama is making it awkward and as hard as possible for his successor to reverse his actions -from acting against Russia for its cyber warfare to punishing Israel for its settlements. There will be a lot for Trump to repeal when he gets to the Oval office on January 20.